India, Oct. 17 -- The ticket distribution in the JD-U has a striking feature this time. It seems to have lost confidence in Muslim candidates, despite chief minister Nitish Kumar's consistent efforts since 2005 to keep the minority community in its fold. There are just four seats going to Muslims out of 101 JD-U is contesting.

Despite being mostly in the company of BJP, Nitish ensured that his secular credentials were not affected even a bit, with a slew of schemes for the minorities. But he seems to have ran out of patience this time and his party had started giving indications about it since the last Lok Sabha elections.

The crucial minority votes, which are believed to be in sound numbers in almost one-fourth of Bihar assembly seats ...